Artist's France

Van Gogh’s Sunflowers, Monet’s Water Lilies and Matisse’s Cut Outs – these are just some of the world’s most famous and valuable art works. And they were all created in France.

And you can follow in the footsteps of many of the greatest artists of the 19th and 20th centuries, seeing the sights and enjoying the light and landscapes that inspired them from the coast of Normandy to Provence and the Cote D’Azur.

On escorted tours to France expert guides give extra value, sharing local knowledge and pointing out the spots where among others Gauguin, Van Gogh, Monet and Renoir set up their easels. So you can capture the scene, too, on your camera or iPad.

Two more great ways to see where favourite artists lived and worked are on Rhone and Seine river cruises. Cruises to France from Britain are another option, with ports of call in Normandy, Brittany and the French Riviera offered on ocean voyages.

Here are some of my favourite artistic locations to visit on holidays to France.

Whichever way you look in the delightful garden Claude Monet created at Giverny, you’ll have lovely views familiar from his paintings. Here the father of Impressionism painted the Japanese bridge on his pond framed by weeping willows, irises and of course his water lilies series. Inside his house there are faithful reproductions of his own works and his personal art collection. Excursions to Giverny are offered on the best Seine river cruises, escorted tours to Normandy and mini-cruises to Honfleur and Le Havre.

You’ll be spoiled for choice for arty excursions on Seine cruises and ocean cruises to the ports of Normandy. In the pretty port of Honfleur on the Seine Estuary you can visit Erik Satie’s quirky house museum with interactive exhibits. Better known as a composer and pianist, Satie’s work was also a precursor to Surrealism. Go to the Eugene Boudin Museum to see seascapes by Boudin himself and works by Monet, Courbet and Dufy, too.

Le Havre has one of the finest collections of Impressionist and Post-Impressionist paintings in France, in the light and airy MuMa Museum. And in Rouen you can visit Monet’s first floor studio opposite the Gothic cathedral. Here in the 1890s he painted more than 30 impressions of the façade at different times of day, capturing the changing light through big windows.

The South of France is another region that has always attracted artists, drawn by the special light.

One of the most popular ports of call on Rhone river cruises is ancient Arles, with good reason. Not only is the ancient Provencal city with a Roman amphitheatre the gateway to the wild Camargue marshlands that are home to black bulls and pink flamingos, it has two of the most popular artists in history for former residents, Vincent Van Gogh and Paul Gauguin who lodged together in the The Yellow House in 1888, and famously fell out just before Van Gogh cut off his ear.

Picture boards mark spots around Arles where Van Gogh painted Starry Night, The Yellow Café, the Garden of the Hospital (now an arts centre) and other well-known works hanging in galleries around the world. Well worth a visit too, is Saint-Paul Asylum in Saint-Remy, where Van Gogh was a patient for a year and produces a great deal of work. Your coach will also take you to Langlois Bridge, reproduction of the one painted by Van Gogh and past fields of lavender and sunflowers en route to the peaceful asylum and gardens, framed by mountains.

The smart seaside city of Nice, capital of the Cote d’Azur, with its sweeping Promenade des Anglais has been popular with British tourists since Queen Victoria’s day, and was the adopted home town of Henri Matisse. You can stroll round the Old Port where he used to go rowing in his 60s and 70s and see a matchless collection of his works, including paintings, sculptures and giant, colourful cut-outs donated by the artist himself. Treat yourselves to lunch in La Colombe d’Or restaurant a few miles inland at St-Paul de Vence. The walls are adorned with original artworks by Picasso, Matisse and many others, given in exchange for drinks and meals in the early 20th century.

Southwest from Nice on the Riviera, Antibes one of the first places Picasso stayed when he left Paris after the Second World War, spending two months as artist in residence in Chateau Grimaldi. The castle has a wonderful location looking out to sea and its vast walls are hung with many works created by Picasso in his prolific time there.</b>

Published by Mail Travel, a division of Associated Newspapers Limited, a company registered in England under company number 84121 with a registered office at Northcliffe House, 2 Derry Street, London W8 5TT

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